One part of the ferocious pace quartet of West Indies, Michael Holding has included South African fast bowler Dale Steyn in his list of all-time top four fast bowlers.
Holding included Steyn within the same bracket as West Indian greats Malcolm Marshall, Andy Roberts and Australian live-wire Dennis Lillee.
“I have experience with those three guys (Marshall, Roberts and Lillee, but just watching, you can’t go Dale Steyn outside of photography. He has been one of the great fast bowlers in an era. You’d pay to see it,” Holding told Sky Sports.
Steyn has been the spearhead for the South African bowling attack in all formats of the game, since making his debut in 2004.
However, constant battle with injuries has taken a significant chunk of cricket out of Steyn in recent years. Steyn is one shy of picking up 700 international wickets, as he was bracing up for the T20 World Cup in Australia. His bowling average of 23.37 speaks volumes of his abilities with the ball.
Also, Holding had few words of admiration for Lillie, tagging him as the complete package. Lillie, pairing up with Jeff Thompson, challenged the pace-bowling quartet of West Indies during the 70s and the 80s.
“Lillee had it all: rhythm, aggression control. He was extremely fast when he started, but he had to completely reshape his action after a back injury and find different ways to get hitters out after losing a lot of rhythms,” added the ‘Whispering Death’.
“In those days you didn’t have many tapes or computers, it was all in his head. He understood how to deal with hitters,” concluded Holding.
